inside a locked room accessible only by climbing might be an allusion to The Sign of the Four. Broadcast and reception "The Blind Banker" aired on BBC One on 1 August 2010. Overnight figures showed that the episode had been watched by 6.442 million viewers on BBC One, a 25.6% audience share, while 210,000 watched on BBC HD an hour later. Final consolidated figures rose to 8.07 million, with both BBC One and BBC HD taken into account. The episode received mixed to positive reviews from television critics. Sam Wollaston of The Guardian thought that "The Blind Banker" was better than the series opener, calling the plot "more satisfying ... clearer and more self-contained". He particularly praised the relationship between Sherlock and Watson. Radio Times reviewer David Butcher wrote that the episode "didn't have the scripting pizzazz of the others, but it did have one big advantage: Zoe Telford. She played a love interest for Martin Freeman's Dr Watson and briefly threatened to bring a strong female character into the mix — only to be wasted on damsel-in-distress duties. We can only hope creator Steven Moffat will bring her back for the second run". IGN's Chris Tilly rated the episode 7 out of 10, describing it as "a lacklustre effort that fails to do justice to that smart and sophisticated start". He praised Lyn's directing and the character developments, especially of Watson, but Lestrade did not appear and the plot "fails to fully engage, the story feeling like 60-minutes of material dragged out over 90". Reassessment Recent assessment (after the series concluded) rates the episode low. Laurie Pennie, writing for The New Statesman, characterizes the plot as "booga-wooga yellow peril exotic chinky slaughter emporium". Collider calls it "seriously lazy Orientalism." In her 2020 paper "Orientalising London and the Victorian Era: Questioning Neo-Victorian Politics and Ideologies," Jaine Chemmachery writes: "The tropes of unassimilable otherness and unfathomable mystery are repackaged into a London Chinatown which is explicitly Orientalist," referring to both the series as a whole and this episode directly. References External links Sherlock at Hartswood Films 2010 British television episodes Sherlock (TV series) episodes Television episodes written by Stephen Thompson (writer) Television episodes about organized crime